The high-speed fighter plane that was to capture the public's imagination - and put fear into the hearts of German pilots - made its maiden flight at a Hampshire airfield.

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The Supermarine Spitfire - the British fighter aircraft that became the iconic plane of the Battle of Britain - made its first flight on this day in 1936.

On the night of March 5, Captain Joseph 'Mutt' Summers - chief test pilot at Supermarine's parent company Vickers-Armstrongs - took off in the Type 300 K5054 prototype from Eastleigh airfield in Hampshire.

At the end of the eight-minute flight, Summers climbed out of the cockpit and said to the small group of observers "I don't want anything touched", indicating that nothing required correcting before his next test flight.

The Spitfire was the creation of engineer RJ Mitchell, who had been asked by Vickers-Armstrongs chairman Sir Robert McLean to design a plane to meet 'Air Ministry Specification F.7/30' which sought a fast, manoeuvrable fighter to replace the outdated models then in service with the RAF.

While Mitchell's Type 224 fighter failed to secure the contract, McLean encouraged him to develop a "real killer fighter" which would exceed the ministry's specification.

With its characteristically thin elliptical wings, battery of four machine guns and powerful Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, the all-metal Type 300 soon caught the eye of the ministry, who - concerned at the news the Germany had revived its air force - co-funded the development of the prototype.

Three months after the first test flight, and after the easy-to-control 349mph K5054 had proved popular with its test pilots - some claimed it "almost flew itself" - the Air Ministry put in an order worth £1.25 million for 310 Spitfires.

Four years later the plane was to play a vital role in repelling the might of the Luftwaffe, capturing the public's imagination during the Battle of Britain and establishing 'Spitfire' as a legend of the skies.

The Spitfire - Did you know?

While the Spitfire is regarded as the most famous RAF fighter plane of World War II, it was the older, slower Hawker Hurricane that saw more action and whose pilots shot down more planes.

Despite delays in the delivery of the Supermarine plane to RAF squadrons, newsreels and government propaganda saw to it that the sleeker Spitfire stole the headlines from the sturdier Hurricane. The official campaign of 1940 to raise money for aircraft production was even called The Spitfire Fund.

The name 'Spitfire' comes from an old English word meaning someone of strong or fiery character. The names 'Snipe' and 'Shrew' were also considered.

Designer RJ Mitchell was unimpressed by the 'Spitfire' name forced upon the Type 300 by Vickers-Armstrongs chairman Sir Robert McLean. "Just the sort of bloody silly name they would think of," he is reputed to have said.

After the failure of the Type 224, the Supermarine workforce had little interest in the new plane. "It hadn't the majesty or dignity of a flying boat... to us it was just another bloody aeroplane," said Vickers worker Dennis Webb.

Jeffrey Quill, who succeeded Mutt Summers as Vickers' chief test pilot, flew some 52 prototype variants of the Spitfire to perfect it for active service. Known as 'Mr Spitfire', he later persuaded the RAF to let him fly combat missions as 'research', returning to test duties only after he had shot down a Messerschmitt 109 and a Heinkel bomber.

Of the 20,351 Spitfires built between 1938 and 1947, just 53 remain airworthy.

The original prototype crash landed on September 4, 1939 - the day after war broke out. Its pilot was killed and the plane never flew again.

In the 1942 film The First of the Few, Mitchell, played by Leslie Howard, was seen to die as the first prototype takes to the skies. In fact he lived another 15 months, dying of cancer on June 11, 1937, aged just 42.

As many as 124 unassembled Spitfires were rumoured to have been put into crates and buried at the end of the war in Burma, but a 2013 search for the planes turned up nothing.